After rumors surfaced that Mason International was recruiting super-powered bodyguards at this year’s Comic-Con, members of the tightly-knit conspiracy community “The Flashlight” took to the streets of San Diego. And when devotees of “The Flashlight” get organized, they cast a wide net. One avid “Flashlight” reader badgered employees on-camera at the Mason International booth, but was promptly asked to leave by Mason’s head of security.

The same conspiracy investigator filmed a conversation with another frequent “Flashlight” contributor, internet personality Sam Proof, confirming that Max Mason was indeedinterviewing would-be bodyguardsat this year’s Comic-Con, and that the heroes in question were anything but cosplayers.

Fury of Solace himself was spotted by a number of Comic-Con attendees that same day, sticking mostly to the convention center where he could blend in with the bevy of costumed fans and elude detection by San Diego PD. Though Max Mason’s location was a closely guarded secret, Fury of Solace did manage to learn that the millionaire was staying at the Omni hotel (a breach in security which led Mason’s head of security to believe that the villain had a mole inside Mason International).

Loathe to walk the streets of San Diego in broad daylight, but determined to catch Max Mason in the act, Fury of Solace sent out a plea to his thousands of twitter followers, asking any and all of them to see if there were any messages for Mason at the front desk of the Omni. “Flashlight” enthusiast Sam Proof heeded Solace’s call, and relayed to the villain a brief message that was meant for Max Mason: “Sara Ward says to meet her for dinner at 7:15 at Lou and Mickey’s.” It was this vital piece of intel that led to the now-infamous scuffle between Fury of Solace and Mason’s would-be-superhero employee (chronicled here).

The Orphan, for her part, missed the party completely. As soon as she received reports of Solace’s presence in San Diego, she braved Comic-Con traffic to try and get there in time to apprehend the supervillain. But by the time she arrived on Saturday night, the drama that had unfolded that evening on the streets of San Diego’s Gaslamp District was long over. And even a world-famous do-gooder like Los Angeles’ sworn protector would not be admitted to the convention center without a badge.

See below for a twitter timeline of the events of the day, in reverse chronological order.

While Fury of Solace was busy trying to track down Max Mason at Comic-Con, a new player emerged on the scene: the administrator of a conspiracy blog called The Flashlight, who answers only to Uroboros. Uroboros, it appears, has something of a love/hate relationship with Fury of Solace: the blogger wants to see Max Mason brought to justice for his crimes as much as Solace does, but Uroboros does not agree that bloodshed is the answer.

To that end, Uroboros donned a mask of his own, with an eye towards infiltrating Mason International’s supposed superhero recruitment program, and documented his findings through a handful of videos posted on the Flashlight.

Uroboros donned a concealed camera and tried to coax the truth out of a Mason International employee. But apparently accosting the poor woman put Uroboros on someone’s radar, because shortly thereafter, the conspiracy blogger was approached by a minion who was presumably also in Max Mason’s employ. Uroboros managed to gather some compelling footage before his concealed camera was discovered, forcing him to flee. He also collected his first piece of hard evidence against Mason International: a superhero recruitment card, sporting the pharmaceutical company’s familiar logo.

After his harrowing escape from the Mason thug, it appeared that Uroboros had obtained solid proof of Mason International’s true designs in San Diego that weekend.

But, like most of his paranoid theories, this latest, too, fell on deaf ears.

Not long after Fury of Solace’s assassination attempt on Max Mason, Mason International announced that they would have a booth at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego. Mason International was ostensibly in town for a Healthcare Summit that same weekend, but Fury of Solace pursued the pharmaceutical company to San Diego, where he posted a video voicing his suspicions about Mason’s true purpose at Comic-Con: rumor had it Mason International was recruiting superhero bodyguards. (Click below image for video)

And as it turned out, Fury of Solace wasn’t the only concerned citizen looking into Mason’s presence in San Diego that weekend. A conspiracy blog called “The Flashlight” had recently alleged a link between Mason International and a Los Angeles-wide criminal conspiracy, and devotees of the site attended Comic-Con in droves, intent on bringing the pharmaceutical company’s machinations to light. One such “Flashlight” enthusiast provided Fury of Solace with a key piece of intel: On Saturday night, Max Mason himself was scheduled to have dinner with a woman named Sara Ward, the frontrunner in his superhero recruitment drive, at a seafood restaurant across from the convention center.

Just after 7 p.m. that night, a purple-clad blond woman (presumably this Sara Ward) was spotted dining on the patio of said restaurant. But before her dinner date arrived, the mysterious woman was accosted by Fury of Solace, in front of an exodus of Comic-Con attendees. After a brief argument, the woman fled, Solace hot on her heels. Thanks to camera-phone clips posted on YouTube by a handful of witnesses, Los Angeles News Broadcaster Starla Carter was able to reconstruct the chase that ensued through the streets of San Diego.

The chase culminated with this Sara Ward disappearing seemingly into thin air. Perhaps literally, as some witnesses will attest: word has it that Ward flew away from her pursuer under her own power. Ward has not been seen since.

Click here for a detailed account of the events that led up to this fateful encounter.

One year later, the proprietor of “The Flashlight” returned to Comic-Con in an attempt to pick up the missing Ward’s trail. This is what he found.

On Monday, July 6th, Fury of Solace kidnapped Max Mason, President and CEO of Mason International. Solace posted a password protected video online warning innocent bystanders to steer clear of Mason Tower, Mason International’s Los Angeles Corporate Headquarters. Thanks to the help of a handful of civic-minded members of the twitter community, the Orphan decoded Solace’s password and set out for Mason Tower on a mission to save Max Mason’s life. Click here or on the picture below to see what happened when she got there.

When Fury of Solace posted a password-protected video detailing his plans to execute Max Mason, the Orphan enlisted the aid of her twitter followers to crack the supervillain’s code. The Orphan was further aided by the self-proclaimed prophet Augur, who provided clues which led her to a secret twitter account called Fate_Fulfilled, where Augur posted a link to a photo of a mysterious belt buckle, which proved vital in unraveling Fury of Solace’s password, “celer et audax”.

See below for the play-by-play of how it all went down (most recent tweets first):

Back in January, the supervillain known as Fury of Solace declared war on Max Mason, President and CEO of pharmaceutical giant Mason International. On July 6th, Solace kidnapped Max Mason, and posted a video online detailing his plans, hidden behind a password: